to be woven in a common stocking frame, or a frame upon the same principle, instead of the loom commonly used for felted cloths. When the cloth is taken out of the frame, list, taken from felted cloth, or made for the purpose, should be sewed round the edges, and then the cloth should be finished in the same manner, and by the same processes, as the felted cloths in common use are, when taken from the loom. If found convenient, two or more pieces may be sewed together, and the list sewed round the whole. The following are said to be the superior advantages which this new article possesses. Independently of novelty, there is ease, elegance, and durability; and it is a cloth, notwithstanding the transverse elasticity, more impervious to wet than any cloth ever made, void of artificial means to render it water-proof; a thread cannot be made to twill or run -from the edges, even with the assistance of a pin or needle. MR. JAMES GODDARD'S, (NEWMANSTREET, LONDON,) for a Method of Manufacturing a certain Description of Wooden Boxes, called Chip-Boxes, or Pill Boxes, of all various Sizes and Shapes. We have in the specification before us, drawings that represent views of all the machinery used for cutting wood into chips, veneers, &c. for making these boxes, or for any other uses. The knife, or cutting instrument, is made of platesteel, having the edge thereof bevilled, or ground only on the side of the face farthest from the wood intended to be cut, and the line of the said edge is sloped, or inclined to the line in which it is moved by the carriage, in an angle of about thirty degrees; in other words, the angle of slope in cutting is such, that the length of the said knife, in proportion to the breadth thereof, as six to one. This mode of operation will be understood by the following description:-By turning a handle, the carriage and its cutter, &c. are brought to the end of the machinery; the screws and nuts being in a prepared state, the wood nearly shaped to its proper size, is put into its place, resting upon a platform, and having its face a very little beyond the groove in which the cutter is made to move. The screws, &c. are now brought to act fairly upon the wood; and the carriage being drawn through its course, cuts off a slice, or shaving. The carriage is returned back, t and the handle turned so as to press said piece forward in the way of the c ter. The carriage is again drawn f ward, and the cutter takes off a shavi of uniform thickness, more or less sto according to the quantity of motion pr duced by the action of the screws. proceeding in this manner, the who piece may be cut up, until a thin p tion only remains, and the remainder a number of pieces may afterwards glued together, and then cut into sha ings, or slices, of the requisite thinne as before. The tops and bottoms of t boxes are made by means of a seat a cutting-punch, worked by a fly-press the same manner as metallic blanks a cut out for coins, buttons, and oth works. Mr. Goddard cuts his piec for making boxes into fit lengths guages, as in the usual method, and glues them up upon cylinders, or block and then puts them to dry in fram adapted for the purpose. MR. PENWARNE'S, (PANCRAS,) for Invention, or Process, for giving S tues, or other ornamental Works Plaster, an appearance nearly rese bling Marble. The principle of this invention is impregnate the said plaster of Pa with sulphate of alumine (alum,) whi is done in the following manner. A s lution of alum in water is prepared in t proportion of one part of alum to thr of water. The liquor is then made boil, or is heated to a degree of ter perature sufficient to dissolve the alu The plaster-cast previously dried, a finished off, is then immersed in t above solution, and suffered to rema therein from fifteen minutes to half hour; it is then taken out and suspend over the vessel, containing the solutio and when cooled, some of the solution dipped up and thrown over it, or appli to it by means of a sponge, or lin cloth, and which is continued till t alum forms a fine crystallization over surface, of a due degree of thicknes when it is sufficiently dry, it may brought to a proper degree of smoothne or polish, by means of sand paper, glass-paper, and finished by being ru bed with a fine linen cloth, slightly mo tened with clean water. The vess made use of in this business are made wood, heated by steam introduc through a leaden pipe, from a boiler. Specimens of this imitation of statu marble, may be seen at No. 12, Pick stre street. Hitherto the plaster-cast has been valued for the facility it afforded of producing cheap, correct, and faithful, Copies of the finest works of the chisel; but possessed no other advantages: its colour was unfavourable, it was liable to Sod from the touch, and from dust, and is fragility and softness rendered it next to impossible to clean it. The present invention is said completely to obviate these disadvantages, and the subject of it may be regarded as an intermediate step between the plaster-cast, and the expensive marble. It possesses the beautiful whiteness and transparency of the finest statuary marble, and at the same time scarcely yielding to it in hardness and durability. It is not affected by the moisture of the dampest apartment; is less liable to soil, and as easily cleaned as marble. MR. JOHN CRAIGIE'S, (CRAVEN-STREET, LONDON,) for an Improved Kitchen Fire-place. Mr. Craigie's invention, by which full two-thirds of the fuel now used will be saved, consists in the application of the powers of an air-furnace, to give heat externally, and in using sand, iron, or other dense bodies, to receive and retain such heat, to be employed for various useful purposes. A description of a fireplace upon the smallest scale, is as follows: The foundation is of stone, or brick, four feet in length by two feet eight inches in breadth, and about twenty inches in height: at one end in the front is to be placed the chimneygrate, eighteen inches wide and six deep. On the foundation, in the centre, at nineteen inches distant from each other, are to be raised two sides, in stone or brick, the whole length thereof, about eight inches in height: on these sides is to be placed a pan, five or six" inches deep, of cast-iron, of size to cover the whole, with rims to rest on the sides, but leaving a small space of about half an inch vacant from each side be low: the pan is to be raised above the basis, so as to leave an aperture throughout, of about an inch and a half; at the end of the furnace, opposite to the firegrate, the aperture will terminate in a flue of brick, or iron, to convey the smoke into the chimney of the house, which flue should be furnished with a register: a plate projecting from the lower end of the pan, will form the top of the fire-place, of eighteen inches by six or eight; the sides will be formed of firebricks; the back made likewise of firebrick, will ascend towards the top, in a sloping direction under the pan. A frame of iron is to be placed to receive the door or front, which is to be about eighteen by sixteen, so as to cover the ash-pit four inches, and to be about twelve inches above the grate for the fire-place, in front of which there should be an inner grate, five or six inches high: this door must have in the lower part of it, that is, at about one inch and a half from the bottom, a small door of about three inches wide by two in depth, to furnish air through the ash-pit. The iron pan being filled with dry sand, will form a sand-bath, with heat sufficient, accord ing to the depth to which the vessel is placed in it, for all ordinary purposes; and being once heated, will retain the heat for a considerable time, especially if the doors are kept close shut: the plate or front will serve for broiling or frving. Roasting may be performed, in high perfection, betore the door in front, even with the door shut; an oven for baking may be fixed at the flue. In roasting, a fire-screen should be used. VARIETIES, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL. T Philosophical, Ethical, and Theo- quisitions relate to natural religion, as logical Treatise on the Passions and Af fections of the Mind, will be published in the month of September ensuing. This volume contains two disquisitions on the conduct essential to happiness; in which the beneficial influence of virtue, and the nature of moral obligation, are particularly considered: and also two disquisitions on religion, as conlaining the most powerful inducements to MONTHLY MAG. No. 202. the theological and moral character of the Jewish dispensation. A subsequent disquisition, on the peculiar excellencies of christianity, respecting the moral nature of man, and the encouragement given to his niost exa.ted desires and expectations, will conclude the works. Mr. WILLIAM GIFFORD is engaged on a new edition of Ben Jonson's I Works, Works, with additional notes and illus trations. Mr. BOWYER'S Conjectures on the New Testament, which have for many years been extremely scarce, are reprinting from a copy presented to the editor by the bishop of Durham, and enriched with additional notes by the late Rev. Dr. Henry Owen. The new edition will also include the Conjectures of Mr. Stephen Weston, and of Professor Schulz. Major PRICE, of the Bombay esta blishment, will shortly put to press, Chronological Memoirs of Mohammedan His tory, from the earliest period to the establishment of the house of Teymur, in Hindoostan. The Rev. Mr. POULET has nearly ready for press a Father's Reasons for being a Christian. Two volumes of Sermons, by the late Rev. THEOPHILUS LINDSEY, will be published in the first week of August. The Familiar Introduction to the Arts and Sciences, announced some time since by the Rev. THOMAS REES, will, at his desire, and on account of his own avocations, be completed forthwith by the Rev. J. JOYCE. Mr. D. M. CRIMMIN, of the Middle Temple, is engaged upon a Translation of Aristotle's Dissertation on Rhetoric. It will form an octavo volume. Mr. CHARLES PHILLIPS, of the Middle Temple, will speedily publish the Loves of Madelaine and St. Aubert, a tale, partly founded on fact. The gentleman who some time since, under the signature of JOHN SMITH, published An Examination of the Gospels respecting the person of Jesus, is about to publish an Examination of the Prophecies, selected from the most eminent expositors. gonometrical and barometrical measure ments. Mr. HEWETSON, author of the drama of the Blind Boy, Fallen Minister, William Tell, &c. has in the press a translation of Eliezer and Nephthaly, a posthumous work of the late Chevalier Florian, from the Hebrew; which will be published early next month. A translation of HUMBOLDT'S Account of New Spain, has been announced as in the press, and nearly ready for pub lication. This valuable work comprises, researches into the geography of Mexico; the extent of its surface and its political division into intendancies; the physical aspect of the soil; the actual population; state of agriculture; manufacturing in dustry, and commerce; the canals which might be carried from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; the revenues of the crown; the quantity of metals which has flowed from Mexico into Europe and Asia, since the discovery of the New Continent; and the military defence of New Spain: and will be accompanied by physical and geographical Maps, founded on astronomical observations, and tri Mr. D. MANN, many years in official situations in New South Wales, is preparing for publication the Present Picture of that Colony, intended as supple mental to the accounts of Collins, and others, bringing them down to the present time. It will be illustrated with a Plan of the settlement, and other engravings. It The superiority of iron for roofs in lieu of wood, in strength, durability, and expense, is exemplified in a roof lately constructed by the Aberdare Iron Company, and put up at Newport, Monmouthshire. covers a building 40 feet long, and 21 feet wide over the walls, and consists of seven main couples, two leading couples, and wall-plating, all of cast iron, wrought iron laths, screw-pins, &c. total weight 2ton, 4cwt. 2qrs. 20lb. being sufficiently strong to sustain the heaviest stone tile of this country, and is in itself lighter than one of wood, of which substance there is not one particle. The main couples are made in three pieces, the collar or tiebeam of which forms part of a circle, thereby giving much more head-room than is possible with wood, and holės are left in the same for the purpose of fixing ceiling-joists, making an handsome covered ceiling; it requires neither sidepieces nor rafters, the wrought-iron laths being a substitute for both. The whole roofing, after being fitted together, and taken to pieces again, at Aberdare ironworks, was put into one waggon, and conveyed to Tredagar iron-works, there unloaded into a train-waggon, and taken down the Sirrowy tram-road, through sir C. Morgan's park, to Newport, in twenty-four hours, a distance of thirty-six miles. It was then fitted together again, and fixed on the walls completely ready for the tiler in less than five hours, who, having no laths to prepare or nail on, can tile a roof in half the time it could be done on one constructed of wood. They are applicable to buildings of all sizes, can be put up at a much less expense per square than any other, and are, of course, far more durable. The two following facts connected with the migration of swallows, have been communicated by a correspondent to a respectable contemporary publication :~ In the village of Merton, in Oxfordshire, a young swallow was caught about four years ago, and a very small light bell fastened round its neck by a thin band of leather. It was turned loose, and remained about the spot till the Michaelmas following, when it disappeared with its fellows. Next spring the bell was heard among the first arrivals; and the bird remained til the end of the season. He again made his appearance the third season; but his music ceased about the middle of the summer, from which it is conjectured that he had attracted the attention of some person and was destroyed. The second fact, which rests on the authority of a clergyman resident near the spot, is, that many thousand swallows have been taken from the sandpits and cliffs on the south-west coast of Anglesea in a torpid state, during severe weather. It is stated to be a common observation of the country, that as the days grow shorter and colder, the swallows become more numerous, which is accounted for by the arrival of strangers to take up their winter quarters. Considerable quantities of poppy seeds have lately been bought up in different parts of the country, and the expressed oil from them sold at the price of Florence oil. Major COCHRANE, of Had dingron, was the first person who stated the advantages arising from the cultiva tion of poppies, and that sevan ounces of fine salad oil were farnished by expression from two pounds of the seed. The success of the various institutions for the relief of the indigent blind, has suggested the idea for the relief of the opulent who labour under the privation of sight, on a plan similar to that by which M. Hauy at Paris, some years ago, taught them reading, writing, arithmetic, music, and the rudiments of the sciences in general. At the concluding lecture for the season at the Royal Institution, the large Voltaic apparatus, consisting of 2000 double plates, four inches square, was put in action for the first time. The effects of this combination, the largest that has been constructed, were of a very brilliant kind. The spark, the light of which was so intense as to resemble that of the sun, struck through some lines of air, and produced a discharge through heated air nearly three inches in length, and of a dazzling splendour. Several bodies, which had not been fused before, were fused by this flame: the new metals discovered by Mr. Tennant, iridium and the alloy of iridium, and osmium. Zircon and alumine were likewise fused; char A coal was made to evaporate, and plumbago appeared to fuse in vacuo. Charcoal was ignited to intense whiteness by it in oxymuriatic gas, and volatilized in it, but without being decomposed. large Leyden battery, containing twenty. four coated jars, was charged by a momentary contact of the wires, to a degree that required from twenty to thirty turns of Nairne's machine of eight inclies diameter. All the electrical phenomena of the passage of electricity to a distance, the discharge through a Torricellian vacuum, the attractions and repulsions of light bodies, were demonstrated in a distinct way by means of this apparatus. It is hoped that the application of so powerful an instrument, and such easy methods of producing the most intense heat, will lead to some new facts in analytical science. Hence the many At a late meeting of the Royal Society was read the translation of a paper by M. DELILLE, describing the real nature and properties of the celebrated Bohan Upas, or poison-tree of Java. The au thor, a French physician, and a member of the National Institute of Egypt, trans mitted this paper from the East Indies to the Royal Society, by an English lady. The botanical account of the plant in question he received from one of the French naturalists who accompanied Captain Baudin, and who resided some time in Java, where he visited the interior of the country, and with much difficulty prevailed on the natives to show him the different poison-plants, which they carefully conceal, for the purpose of using them in war. fabulous accounts that have been circu lated respecting the fatal influence of the Upas; which, in the language of the Javanese, signifies vegetable poison, and is applied only to the juice of the Bohan tree, and another plant with a twisted stem. The former is a large tree, which the writer considers as a new genus; the latter, yielding an equally powerful poison, is of the woodbine family. The Upas, or juice, is extracted by an incision made in the bark with a knife, and being carefully collected, is preserved by the natives to be employed in their wars. As to its diffusing noxious effluvia in the atmosphere, and destroying vegetation to a considerable distance around it, the absurdity of these stories is sufficiently exposed by the fact that the clunbing species requires the support of other plants to attain its usual growth. Dr. Delille made several experiments with the upas on dogs and cats. An incision wad was made in the thigh of a dog, into which were dropped eight grains of the juice. The dog soon began to vomit, and continued vomiting at intervals till be became convulsed, and died in twenty minutes. Six grains were put into the thigh of another, which was seized with the same symptoms, and died in fifteen minutes. A cat was treated in like manner, but the effects were more speedy and powerful: she expired in a few minutes. All these animals died howling, and in great agony. The author also made several experiments on the effects of this poison when applied internally. A grain and a half being introduced into the stomach of a dog, produced only a slight purging. To another were given four grains, which, in about four hours, produced the same effect, together with vomiting, and the dog died in the course of half a day. On examining the bodies of these animals after death, no very extraordinary appearances were discovered; the ventricles of the heart were full of blood, and some slight traces of inflammation appeared in the stomach; but the derangement was not so great as might have been expected from such a violent and sudden death. From this circumstance the author concluded that the absorbents had transmitted the poi son to the nerves of the stomach, and that this peculiar species of vegetable poison acts exclusively on the nerves. Mr. RICHARD WALKER, of Oxford, having been for a long time engaged in thermometrical experiments and observations, during which the imperfection of all the scales in use frequently occurred to him, has proposed a new one. It is founded on the principle of 62°. of Fahrenheit, being the point at which the human body in a state of health, is unconscious of either heat or cold, that is, in a state of rest, or when free from any bodily exertion; so that any temperature above 62°. shall give a sensation of heat, and any temperature below that point, a sensation of cold. Mr. Wilson accordingly places O at 62°. of Fahrenheit, which will make 150°. the boiling, and minus 30°. the freezing point of water. All other points on Fahrenheit's scale may be reduced to this, by subtracting 620. for any degree above O of Fahrenheit's, and adding 629. for any degree below 0. Fahrenheit's divisions are adopted in this new scale as most convenient; those of Reaumur, the centigrade, &c. being considered too few, and decimal divisions unnecessary. a During some experiments recent made by Messrs. CUTHBERTSON SINGER, on the comparative powers cylinder and plate electrical machine it was found that their power may greatly increased by the adoption of my tiplying wheels to communicate moti to those instruments. From the obse vations hitherto made on this subjec there is reason to conclude, that by t proper application of a moving powe the quantity of electricity given out any machine in a determinate time, m be doubled, trebled, quadrupled, a even increased six or ten-fold. The d covery of this principle is of the high importance, as it offers the most effect and ready means of obtaining a ve considerable accumulation of elect fluid; a circumstance of considerable terest in the present state of electri and chemical inquiry. During the last session of parliame an act was passed to enable the govern of Bethlem Hospital to exchange present contracted site of that instituti for a piece of ground containing n twelve acres, in St. George's Fields. which spot the unhappy subjects of m tal derangement will, in addition to th former advantages, possess the super requisites of air and exercise, which th have never yet enjoyed, and which not only likely to add in a considera degree to their comfort, but also to celerate their cure. The plan of ancient structure has long required provement; and it is hoped that fr the great light which has been thro upon the study of architecture wit the last century, and the extensive provements made in the science of dicine during the same period, the m favourable results for the new build will be obtained from the combined lents of able architects, and experien medical professors. With this view governors have offered 2001. for the b 100l. for the second, and 501. for third best designs; in the full confide of being adequately assisted in t anxious desires to erect an hospital, wh may be at once a monument of a be volent and enlightened age, and an nour to a great and distinguished nat The present intention is to erect a bu ing capable of containing 400 patie but not to confine themselves ever that enlarged number, if they shall enabled, by the liberality of the pul to proceed farther in their design. funds of the hospital, which are ap C |